Challenge
by chinarai
Summary: Because Nami adores making his life a sweet living hell.


Hello all!

I'm back at it again and debating whether or not I should transform _Treasure Hunting_ into a multi chapter fic, but in the meantime, have this! It's fairly simple and quick; I reviewed it some time ago, so if you stumble across any mistakes, I apologize!

Enjoy!

* * *

**Challenge**

* * *

The day was good enough for a session of good, sweaty workout outside of the gym up on the crow's nest, and Zoro was more than content with the exchange of sceneries for once. They were stationed by an island that would provide him with a good view, not that he would pay too much attention to it, but the cool breeze that blew past him was more than enough invitation that he take his weights down to the forecastle deck and exercise there, where the fresh air would be abundant instead of scarce as it would be in the stuffy room.

His captain and part of crewmates were playing a game of cards by the mast, using peanuts they stole when Sanji was not looking to replace the money they did not have to make bets. As long as they were quiet, no, as long as they did not interrupt him, for they would never be truly quiet for too long, it was fine for them to share the same space. The moment they tried to do anything funny and bother him while he was working out, the swordsman would flee the area and confine himself to the crow's nest again where he could be in peace, but so far they were not being a nuisance, and so far he had only gone through half of his warmup – he could not wait until the real action began.

Chopper and Robin had gone somewhere into town (if you were to consider who they were it would be pretty easy to know where they headed off to) whilst the rest of the crew remained on the ship for their own reasons. Luffy, Usopp and Franky were the ones playing the card game, Nami was in her room, Brook was off somewhere playing his violin for Zoro could listen to the notes loud and clear, and the cook was doing whatever his idiotic self wanted, possibly something for the only girl that was on the ship at the moment. He was so annoying, calling out for them at the top of his lungs whenever he was finished preparing one of those frilly drinks of his; one could not nap in peace when he was around – one could not _be_ in peace when he was around.

He put down his normal sized dumbbells, far too light for him now, but they were good enough to stretch all the muscles in his arms with his exercises, and cracked his knuckles before lowering himself to the ground. Some push-ups and then he could start his real workout routine. It was easy to do hundreds of reps in many different ways, with both arms, with one arm, balancing himself on his thumbs, upside down, so many, but boring, ways. The warm up was never really his favorite part.

"Of all places," he craned his head up to see their navigator, Nami, donning a colorful two piece swimsuit and a pair of heart shaped sunglasses, a magazine and a stripped beach towel neatly folded beneath her arm, "you had to train here?"

Zoro held his position and retorted. "I didn't know you owned this space, witch."

She started to unfold her towel right beside him, smirking slightly when she noticed his growing scowl. "You just so happen to be in the best place to suntan." Her hand smacked his shoulder lightly. "Move over."

"I'm fine right here, thanks."

One of her eyebrows arched in a defiant way before her fingers lifted the soft fabric off the ground. "Is that so?" And just like that, as he replied, she draped the blue and white material over his back, feeling him tense under her palms when she placed her hands over his spine.

The swordsman controlled the urge to let his weight fall and roll away from her mischievous antics. "Just what are you planning on doing now?"

"Relax," replied Nami in a teasing tone as she settled herself onto his back, trying to get as comfortable as the position would allow her. "I could use some sun, and you could use some additional weight to work these skinny arms as yours."

His eyebrow twitched at her taunt, but he would not give her the satisfaction of leaving unscratched by his words. "Your weight might crush me."

"Watch it, swordsman!" She reprimanded with a strike of her fist to his side, and a triumphant smirk showed on her face when he grunted. "Now be quiet and get over with it."

He rolled his good eye, but did what she said anyways. The sooner he started, the sooner he would be done, and the sooner she would be out of his back. Her hair was falling around his shoulders and tickling his skin in a distracting way, so Zoro concentrated on his breathing as he worked, bending and straightening his arms in a slow pace to make good use of her help, if he could call it that. She flipped the pages every once in a while, too engrossed in her reading to ever noticed that she was moving, and for a moment he let himself believe she had forgotten just where she was.

Sometimes, Nami would comment on something she had just read; if she was talking to herself or really talking to him, he did not know, but he was mindful enough to at least reply to her with the number of repetitions he had done so far, and she seemed to be fine with the answer she got and moved on to another page. And he, on his part, would imagine her nibbling on her thumb nail, but never really biting it, when she found something really interesting that caught her attention, something she usually did when reading mystery books or trying to figure something out. Zoro noticed so many things about her, so many habits and things she did that he was sure she was not aware of them.

Like when just moments later, when Luffy and his playmates were standing right before her and nagging, he could picture her puffed cheeks judging by her huff and the way she quickly lowered the magazine to her belly. "There's plenty of food in this ship, Luffy!"

"But Sanji only ever cooks it if it's for you or Robin," he whined, and Zoro knew both Usopp and Franky shared knowing glances, and then nodded in agreement, gazes now on the navigator.

Nami remained quiet for far too long for her standards, finger lightly tapping the paper placed over her navel. Once again, he could perfectly see the way she pursed her lips when dealing with their insistent and persistent, food-craving captain, that spent all his money in the first food stall he could find in the cities they visited. "Fine," she dragged out the vowels, and the man underneath her nearly toppled over when she agreed to give him money. Luffy was cheering far too loudly to notice when she called Usopp over and whispered where he could find the money and how much he could take, because if he took more than she told him, she would know, and Nami had the nerve to smile sweetly as he went on his way to fetch the cash, while Franky kept their captain distracted.

The tanned man returned not too long after, Brook trailing behind him. "Just make sure he doesn't get into trouble!" She called out for the responsible men, if there was anyone other than Usopp in their small group, when Luffy went ahead, holding his hat over his head and chanting "meat, meat, meat" as he ran the length of the pier, the trio following him. "We'll be staying here for quite some time."

"Usopp can hold him back." Zoro tried to reassure her, but she scoffed lightly.

"Can he?" She was not very gentle when opening her magazine. "The last time we had to flee the island because he ate all of the free samples in the stall and wanted more." Her companion only chuckled in response and stopped moving for he had just finished his first set of five thousand reps, and decided to let his arms rest while he caught his breath. The woman perched on his back sighed as she made herself comfortable again and flipped through the pages to find where she had left off. "Where was I again?"

He used a hand one at a time to wipe the sweat off his face; it was too damn hot and having her on top of him did not help at all. "Something about different colors and cuts of pants."

"Oh." Nami quickly found the page and gave an appreciative pat his lower back near the waistband of his pants. "Thanks!" He would have shrugged if he could, but he could not, so he simply grunted.

Now, moving on to more pressing matters, the swordsman wondered how he would do his one-arm push-ups with her on his back. Deciding it was best to leave it hovering by his side, he lifted his right hand off the ground and started his second set, but the way he held his arm was too uncomfortable even for him to keep it up for too long. And just as he was about to curl back the limb and keep it placed by his chest on his twentieth rep, he felt gentle hands on his arm, coaxing it to bend and rest behind his back – on top of her stomach.

Zoro held his breath, but did not stop moving lest he gave Nami the satisfaction of knowing she affected him in some way. As if her body over him was not enough, as if her hair caressing his skin and her strong scent of tangerines was not enough, now his forearm was resting over her stomach, and her nails scratched it lightly, only stopping when she had to turn to another page. He did not believe she was aware of her own actions, and again he concentrated on his own movements, counting the numbers under his breath to keep his mind focused on something.

It was a difficult task to finish that set, but somehow he managed, and so he moved on to the other arm. Nami had not spoken since he had started and he was thankful for that; it would have been far, far too distracting. Perhaps the crow's nest was truly the best place for him to train. Up there, there was no Luffy asking for money, there was no one running around and playing tag, there was no orange haired navigator dressed in a flowery bikini, who would lie on his back so she could, supposedly, suntan. There in the crow's nest he would have had finished his warmup already – but the view would not be as pretty.

"Nami-saaan!"

Up there, in the crow's nest, there was no shit cook to interrupt.

Her wavy hair danced over his shoulders as she lifted her head to look at the incoming blond's way. "Here is your te–" there was a gasp that followed, then a metallic crash as the tray fell from his hands, and finally his heavy steps were getting closer. "You damned marimo! What do you think you're doing to my precious Nami-san!?"

"She's there because she wants to," he bit back without stopping, far too close to the end now to let his warmup be interrupted by such a shitty man. "Go bother someone else!"

And then the pervert seemed to finally realize that, not only was she lying on the swordsman's back and staring back at him quizzically, his left forearm was also resting over her stomach – and her hand was placed over his wrist! "Nami-san!" He wailed, and both navigator and swordsman cringed at the sudden high pitch he hit. "Nami-san, let me be your beach chair!" The cook stood too close to their bodies now, and took her hand in his, lifting it to his lips as he dropped himself to one knee. "I can assure you I am more comfortable than this brute!"

"Haven't I told you to go elsewhere?" Zoro exclaimed as he waved his forearm as best as he could to drive him away, swat the cook away as if he were a fly.

"I'm not talking to you, beast!"

The green haired man had already gritted his teeth and would have gotten into an intense argument with Sanji had not Nami's fingers enclosed around his hand before she sat up. "Sanji-kun," the cook practically threw himself at her feet despite the fact that he was already knelt down. "It's too hot for tea," she said in a soft voice, which came too close sounding as a moan; internally, Zoro cringed when his blond rival went on full pervert mode. "Would you make me a refreshing smoothie?"

"Anything for you, Nami-san!"

Before he could even take a step away from them, she added. "I want a berries smoothie." Zoro then snorted; of course she had to pick the kinds of fruits that sounded more like their currency.

Sanji whirled around on his heels to face her again. "But, Nami-san, there aren't any berries in the Sunny."

Nami must have made a sad face of some sort, probably the pouty lips, big watery eyes she did when she wanted to bend the cook in her favor. "What a pity, I really wanted one..."

Her sad tone was all that was needed to get the blond to hop off the edge of their ship and run at top speed to the town, all the while yelling an incredible bunch of nonsense. When the navigator was trying to hold in her fit of laughter, it dawned on the swordsman something. "You sneaky witch," then she laughed, aloud and unrestrained, hands gripping at his sides to keep from falling. "You knew there were no berries on this ship!"

"Of course I did." He knew she was looking over her shoulder and that she winked her eye at him. "Robin and I always make sure to sneak some fruits from the kitchen."

Zoro smirked at her words and returned his left hand to the ground, letting both his palms support most of his weight. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked when she moved on his back, shifting too much for someone who was trying to get comfortable again. "I haven't finished yet."

"I'm not going anywhere."

He should have known that she was planning something. He should have expected that she was onto something the moment Nami decided to lie on his back. Why else would she have dispatched Luffy off with money on Usopp's hands, and did almost the same to the love cook not too long after? It was all part of her plan.

His breath was caught in his throat when he suddenly found her to be under him now, legs wrapped around his waist and arms wound around his torso, her sex way too close to his crotch. Zoro swallowed and she smirked in return; at least he knew his face was all red because of his routine under the bright sun. "What is the meaning of this, woman?" She grinned widely at him, but otherwise said nothing. "Whatever," her fiery hair was all over his hands now; it was much less distracting like that, but their new position did not help much. "Have it your way."

Who was he trying to kid? Zoro would not manage to get this last set done, not with the way she stared at him so intently. He bent his arms, and it was proven to be a bad idea. Her back touched the ground and he pressed her down onto it involuntarily, her breasts squeezed against his bare chest, her breath left her lips in a huff and caressed the base of his neck. Nami held his gaze as he worked, lips parted and hold strong around him. She said nothing the entire time, letting him do his things in peace, but the friction between them did not help him at all.

Just a hundred more and he would be done with it. In the meantime, the swordsman focused his mind on something else, on the clouds, on the steady rhythm of the sea, on the constant salty smell that hung in the air, but his own brain betrayed him and focused instead on the brown of her eyes, on her breathing, on the citrus scent of her hair. Was it just a coincidence that both her tresses and her favorite food happened to be orange? Like many things on this world, he supposed she was born to be like that. How curious it was, he mused when the wind blew and played with her bright locks that tickled his fingers, that both of them seemed to be suddenly so...

Close.

On his last rep, Zoro held his position with bent arms and studied her face as her half-lidded eyes tried to take all his features in, as her tongue peeked out to lick her lips, how she was working overtime to force more air into her lungs. The man now above her inhaled deeply and slowly, and then as his breath left him, he dived his head in a flash.

Nami more than gladly opened her mouth for him, fingers travelled over his spine to tangle in his short green hair as he lowered his body to a more comfortable position, a firm hand placed on the curve of her jaw and another squeezing her thigh. She moaned into him, gasped when he nibbled on her bottom lip, sighed when his mouth travelled to her neck, arched her back when his hands wandered, and she pulled on his locks, shifted underneath him, rubbed herself against him. It drove him crazy and he let her know what she was doing to him by biting the skin on the crook of her neck and humming appreciatively at her responses.

As much as both of them would love to finish what they had started, the place was not very appropriate, and the possibility that their crewmates – the cook, especially – could arrive soon was what drove their mouths away from the other. Nami placed a soft kiss on his chin before unwrapping her legs and allowing him to stand, taking the hand he offered a moment later so he could haul her up, and fixed the top of her swimsuit, pink dusting her cheeks. Zoro was still close enough to dip his head down and bite the lobe of her ear, which he did, and he chuckled lowly when the hairs of her arms stood on end.

The navigator cleared her throat as he moved away to gather his bigger weights. "Now will you let me suntan in peace?"

"Is this what it was all for?" With his back turned to her, he did not see when she wiped the corner of her lips with her fingertips, but Zoro knew she did because she had done so many times before. "A plan to drive me away from your spot?"

"Yes," Nami breathed out and settled for smoothing her beach towel on the wooden floor instead of teasing him about the _stiff_ position he was in. "Delivered in the form of a challenge."

When she stood, he was right behind her. Her back touched most of his naked chest with the motion, his hands settled on her hips, her arms crossed under her bust, and his lips found the nape of her neck. "Hmm..." There they were again, the goose bumps on her skin, so he rubbed his palms over them affectionately, and she melted in his arms. "And what a challenge it was."


End file.
